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:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - :: :: The Weekly Digest for Canterbury Music Addicts :: :: Issue # 45 :: :: Monday, March 10th, 1997 :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Julian Christou <christoj@ug1.plk.af.mil> Subject: Neil Ardley Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 14:56:33 -0700 (MST) Interesting topic on Neil Ardley here. For those interested, the discography I've seen of his is Western Union 1965 DeccaDejeurner Sur L'Herbe 1969 VerveGreek Variations 1970 Columbia/EMISymphony Of Amaranths 1972 Regal ZonophoneKaleidoscope Of Rainbows 1976 GullHarmony Of Spheres 1979 Decca I've not seen or head of anything since then. I have the last three. The last two feature most(if not all) of the later versions of Nucleus as had been mentions (specifically Ian Carr). Symphony has a suite on one side and on the other some wonderful vocal perfomances by Norma Winstone and Ivor Cutler (singing Lear's "the Dong With The Luminous Nose"). It features the standard cream of British Jazz/Rock musicians of the era, specifically Jeff Clyne, Jon Hiseman, Ian Carr, Harry Beckett, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Stan Tracey, Karl Jenkins etc.). I think that Ian Carr contributes to all of Ardley's albums. I've not heard the first three at all and have been looking for them for quite a while. (If anyone wants to do a tape trade - please e-mail me). Among the musicians on some opf these are Jack Bruce, Jon Hiseman and other Colosseum members (Tony Reeves & Dick H-S) as well as Mike Gibbs - another veritable whos-who. KoR is quite different in sound to SoA. HotS is much more similar sounding to KoR. Someone mentioned that there are some CD re-releases - if so could you fill in the details for me if they're still available or where to get them from. Another very excellent Canterbury/Brit Jazz album is Julie Driscoll's "1969". I believe it was recorded about the same time as Keith Tippett's "You Are Here..." and features the same brass section on some tracks, i.e. Nick Evans, Marc Charig & Elton Dean, as well as KT. There are also contributions by Chris Spedding, Karl Jenkins, Brian Godding (and the rest of Blossom Toes), Jeff Clyne, and others. And then there are Mike Gibbs' ensembles .... Julian ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Henry Potts <henry@bondegezou.demon.co.uk> Subject: Paul Buckmaster Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 22:54:57 +0000 In issue 44, neato writes:>Paul Buckmaster exThird Ear Band is linked via his association with >Miles Davis in the early 70's I last saw Paul Buckmaster's name on John Wetton's 1992 solo album_Battle Lines_, where he is credited with arrangements for orchestra. -- Henry Potts [Probably not his most groundbreaking work, however... - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: " petit sebastien" <ptitseb@hotmail.com> Subject: First communication Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 05:19:57 -0800 (PST) Hi all! It's the first time i write to you, so let's introduce myself : I'm SebastienPetit and I'm a radio DJ in Lille (Northern France) for an emission of (good...) progressive rock called Sleepless (visit our site : http://home.nordnet.fr/~jhuylebroeck/). By now, our programme deals with the Hugh Hopper band concert at Theatre de Poche (Bethunes) on March 22 and the Magma concert at the Aeronef (Lille) on March 28. I see that some of you talk about Centipede, Nucleus,etc. but I only managed to get one album of Keith Tippett (Dedicated to you but...). Does anybody could list me the related albums and the way to get them? (in particular, I never heard about a CD version of centipede !). Thanks ! Sebastien Petit SleeplessNB: all "professionnal" informations are welcome, like promotion of concerts, new prog band, fanzine, etc... [NB : A complete Keith Tippett discography (not necessarily as detailed as the Online Discography) would be great, if only for my upcoming Keith Tippett page - I'd almost finished writing the bio when my computer broke down... - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Helene Collon <stellast@club-internet.fr>Subject: Amateur Interview on Kew. Rhône (Peter Blegvad) (Part 2) Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 17:00:50 +0000 Amateur Interview on Kew. Rhône (Peter Blegvad) (Part 2) Q: Is the Pipeline a fetish?A: No, it's not. But the "gegenstand" could be. I'm not sure. Q: What's gegenstand?A: Aside from being another song on the same album as "Pipeline", it's German for object. But it translates literally as conter-stand or resi-stance. Marcel Jean refers to it in a definition of external object: "a complex of fantasy and restraint, of desire and resistance which possesses a material substance". I'm very much interested in exploring that further. Interpreting that strangeness Heraclitus refers to in the fragment : "Though men associate with it most closely yet they are separated from it, and those things which they encounter daily seem to them strange."Q: What made you think a bossa-nova was the appropriate vehicle for such exploration or interpretation?A: John (Greaves) and I felt stressing the gap between the words and the music would be interesting. We made it as incongruous a marraige as possible. To "get" the words you almost have to stop the reocrd and read them, you know, referring to the illustrations on the sleeve. Naturally, if your main concern is with the music, you won't want to be burdened by all that textual paraphernalia. Q: Who is Edmund Husserl ?A: "Father of Phenomenology". He starred in an early version of "Pipeline", gussing wholes an object might be part of. Q: As the First Gentleman now does?A: Yes. Only Husserl was buried to his chin in rubble and guessing to kill time while awaiting rescue. Also he was intent on observing his won mind in the process of making guesses. It was this attempt to avoid the mind while using it, to get an objective view of how it views objects which kept his faculties engaged and ennui at bay.All that's been cut off, but Husserl still informs the song. The lady's assertion is culled entirely from a paragraph of his on simple and compound objects, dependent and independent parts. Q: And the Second Gentleman's assertion?A: Straight from Duchamp's notes on the large glass. It's something I think Jouffret thoughtup: a 3D object casts a 2D shadow, but is itself the shadow of a 4D unknown. A statement Jasper Johns made relates well to all this. He said: "I think one is now able to question the object itself, whether it has any real body or any real use ˜ what we call reality I guess. I think one wonders if one couldn't shift one's focus a bit in looking at a thing, and have the object be somewhere else, not be there at all".For my own part, there's a kind of anger at the root of these concerns. Something like what Breton suggested in the phrase : "getting one's revenge on things".Q: What did you mean by the line "ambiguity can't be measured like a change in temperature?"A: Ah yes. I thought I'd coined a new uncertainty principle! But I screwed up. There are degrees of ambiguity after all, so that line which sounds so pregnant doesn't actually hold. I had the pinned man in mind, Husserl, trying to guess the identity of some hidden thing. What he can't measure is the accuracy of his guesses, whether they get "warmer" or "colder". He's given nothing, not a clue, so there's no telling how close the world or guess he makes come to being the "real" or "right" one. Pure subjectivity, a kind of despair. It's aften from such a point that the heroes of legends set off. Eventually they learn to lose the vision of there being any finish-line. That's the only hope, that the quest itself become the goal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: MARTIN WAKELING <marwak@globalnet.co.uk> Subject: Joy and Ratledge Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 21:35:28 GMT [In WR#44, Age Rotshuizen asked:]>Here's another question: Does anyone know on which tracks Mike Ratledge>appears on 'Joy of a Toy'. 'Song for insane times' is naturally one of>them, but I'm sure I hear his organ on some other tracks. Same goes for >Hugh Hopper. Kevin thanks them both on the cover. I've always assumed that virtually all the organ you can hear throughout Joy Of A Toy is down to Mike Ratledge who, according to Peter Jenner's definitive interview about Joy Of A Toy in Zigzag 9, was employed as one of various session men who were called in to play on top of the bass, drums (all but two tracks are Robert Wyatt), acoustic guitar and piano where they were needed. David Bedford of course went on to play organ in the Whole World but is credited only for piano as well as the arrangements for the album. Hugh Hopper is harder to establish and really needs asking if he recalls his exact input - bassist Jeff Clyne was hired as a session man and given his subsequent dalliances with the Canterbury fusionists - Nucleus, Isotope, Gilgamesh amongst others - his efforts are somewhere in the mix. Mike Ratledge went on to play organ on 'Interview' on Ayers' 1973 'Bananamour' and on the 'Dr Dream Theme' on 1974's 'Confessions of Dr Dream' and his participation with Ayers on a couple of BBC sessions from 1970 and 1973 have recently been released on 'Singing The Bruise'. Hugh Hopper appeared on stage with Kevin at the Gong 25 reunion bash Sat 8/9 October 1974 and played bass on 'Super Salesman' Many Bananas Martin [Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I read somewhere that Clyne played acoustic (aka double) bass, whereas Hopper played electric bass - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ALEXCARY@aol.com Subject: Neil Ardley Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 23:53:31 -0500 (EST) To Davidl@mail.tss.net, Neil Ardsleys Kaleidescope LP (which I have) prominently features two songs with none other than John Martyn (yes slightly off the Canterbury track but vintage music for that or any era) at the time where Martyn is just starting to discover the electric guitar and the complete band format, leaving the acoustic life behind for good. If you've never heard this mans voice and musical creativity which can equally match Richard Sinclair's and Robert Wyatt's (which I find just as good), though in a different direction, then I suggest you sample either some of his early works or recent live compilations which date back to the early 70's. Superb writing and singing and parallel to most of our Canterbury music.P.S. There's always Nick Drake too. Another can't-miss musician in his brief musical life. Anyone know of any On-line access to these guys? [There is a nice Nick Drake website - http://www.algonet.se/~iguana/DRAKE/, I don't know about John Martyn - AL] And Aymeric, didn't hear back on whether or not you knew of Richard Sinclair's USA tour in April/May. Is it happening? Does anyone know? [I would guess the tour is cancelled. It seems Richard is taking a step back with his involvement in music. Maybe our friends from Harlingen can give us more information ? - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim Grainger <Jim@regneag.demon.co.uk> Subject: (none) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 23:04:22 GMT Right! Here's a challenge - does anyone know the number of copies sold of thevarious "classic" Canterbury records ? What was the biggest seller? I'm justcurious, but I know someone will have the answer out there - you seem to knoweverthing else, right down to Hugh Hopper's Great Aunt's inside leg measurement! Jim Grainger ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bigbang@alpes-net.fr (Aymeric Leroy) Subject: An Interview with John G. Perry Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 23:53:31 -0500 (EST) [The origin of this interview dates back to questions sent to John in september 1995... John replied quickly, but unfortunately on a cassette format I couldn't read. Eventually, John re-recorded his answers on another tape. The result is below. I haven't yet heard & transcripted the whole tape, so I don't know yet if John has updated on his current activities... Be patient ! - AL] Q : I understand you were born in the United States. How did that happen ?A : My parents were English, but they had to be over there, and six months after they tipped off in the States, there was I... 1947, January 19th, in a little place called Auburn, in upstate New York, it's about a hundred miles from Niagara Falls. But I was only a baby when we came back, so I can't really remember very much about it. But my sister lives in the States, more of that later on. Q : How did you become interested in music ?A : Well, both my parents actually were very musical, I mean not in a professional sense but they both loved music of all sorts. My father was a very good piano player, my mother had a beautiful voice. And there was always music in the house. And when I was at school, they were very keen that I should learn, and my sister also, in fact... So at school I first started by singing in the choir. I was at the same school for ten years... When I was there I also studied violin up to medium standard. And then I started sort of mocking around a little bit with the bass guitar, which belonged to another kid at school, we had a sort of group but nothing serious. Q : What sort of music did you listen to at the time ?A : I listened to the radio a lot. I was of course impressed with the Beatles and all the other bands who were around, and putting that against all the classical music and church music that I was learning at the time as well. So it was quite an exciting sort of time, a lot of different things happening... those were the early 60's ! An exciting time in terms of discovering what was happening in music, cause there was so much variety coming through. Elvis Presley, of course... And classical music, some of the avant-garde stuff of that, Stockhausen, whatever was exciting... So I sort of went from there. Q : Eventually, you joined a band...A : Yes, that's an interesting story. When I finished school in Bedford, I went down to the beautiful city of Bath, in Avon, a wonderful place. And I went there to college actually, my parents lived there. Of course I didn't know anybody when I popped up there. Very soon I heard that some guys putting a band together, and they needed a bass player. So I thought well, that's a good way to meet a few people, so... I came up to them and said hi, I'm John, I'm a bass player. And off we went from there... We had a rehearsal actually that night, and then dashed off to the local music shop, and put a deposit down on that Vox Trisonic Bass I can remember to this day. That was in 1966. A long time ago... Q : Was this band Gringo ?A : Basically, yes. It was first called Utopia, then The Toast, and eventually Gringo. It started out as a five-piece copy band doing all the hits from the Beatles and the Searchers and lots of stuff playing at college and parties. It was basically the same band all the way through, the three of us : Henry Marsh on guitar and keyboards, Simon Byrne on drums and myself... Henry went on to play with a band called Sailor, which is just reforming, with Curt Becher, and Georg Kajanus and someone whose name I can never remember. And Simon Byrne, a very good drummer, he went on to play with Brotherhood of Man and various other bands like that. We had a couple of girl singers through there. It was a good band actually, because we spent four years together, and really in those days we were able to play six nights a week in different clubs, we didn't get paid a lot of money, but we didn't need so much. Because we had exactly the same line-up and the same equipment as Cream, the early days of Cream, you know, a Marshall stack each, and we could get all our equipment and one roadie into our Four-Transit, travelling around Britain and Europe, and learning what we were doing. The expression is "paying your dues", and this is what we did. And it was fantastic, for four years to do that, we learnt a lot. We spent quite a lot of time in Europe, playing in Holland and Germany, and had a fantastic time living and working just outside Saint-Tropez, where we worked in a club which I think is probably still there as a disco, the Voom-Voom club in Saint-Tropez. And we worked there for three months when it was still, not so much a disco, more a place for live music. The deal was that we played there and they gave us a little place where we could rehearse and work to write our first album, which was on CBS, called Gringo. That was good fun, a fantastic time, it was my proper introduction to France. I even learnt French a bit. I remember someone asking me where I came from. I said "can't you tell by my accent ?". And he said "surely from Marseille", which was rather pleasant... Sadly I didn't keep it up as much as I should do... (to be continued) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF ISSUE #45 _________________________________________________________________________WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ?_________________________________________________________________________ CALYX - The Canterbury Website http://www.alpes-net.fr/~bigbang/calyx.html THE ULTIMATE ONLINE CANTERBURY DISCOGRAPHY http://www.alpes-net.fr/~bigbang/cantdisco.html WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? 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